Living & Learning Community

Phoebe’s Living & Learning Community is an innovative project that will address the critical shortage of nurses in our region, boost the area’s economy and bring much-needed development to the Jefferson Street corridor leading to downtown Albany. This unique, 130,000 square foot medical education and housing complex is being built on the site of a former public school where generations of Albany middle school and high school students were educated. Many of the original design elements of the old building are being incorporated into the new construction, which will continue the long legacy of learning on this site.

The Need | Educational Partners | Other Educational Investments | Construction Timeline

130,000 square foot medical education and housing complex

The education space will include telehealth-enhanced classrooms, meeting rooms, a library, a health career education center and other social amenities. In addition to the registered nurse and licensed practical nurse programs, ATC students studying to be certified nurse assistants, medical technicians and phlebotomists will also learn in the new facility.

The Living & Learning Community will also be home to the Southwest Campus of the Medical College of Georgia and the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy Southwest Georgia Clinical Campus.

Construction Timelapse

Keep up with construction of the Phoebe Living & Learning Community.

Here’s a look at our progress through August.

The Need

The COVID-19 pandemic only worsened an already critical shortage of nurses across the United States. The problem is especially severe in Georgia, where the state has a low rate of nurses per capita and experts predict a shortfall of 80,000 nurses by 2030. To meet the region’s healthcare needs brought on by the pandemic, Phoebe experienced a one-year increase in contract labor costs in excess of $100 million in 2022. This unsustainable trend requires a bold and visionary response. Phoebe has become a nationwide leader in healthcare workforce development, and the Living & Learning Community is a centerpiece of Phoebe’s efforts to work with regional education partners to vastly expand the pipeline of nurses and other healthcare professionals in southwest Georgia.

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Education Partners

The Living & Learning Community is an outstanding partnership with Albany Technical College, but Phoebe also has vibrant and important partnerships with other education institutions throughout the region.

From funding nursing faculty positions, student scholarships and a summer STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) Academy at Albany State University to encouraging and assisting Fort Valley State University with instituting its first nursing program, Phoebe is a vigorous supporter of our area’s schools, colleges and universities and a proud innovator in healthcare education and training.

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Other Education Investments

Phoebe has a long history of investing in medical innovation with education partners throughout Georgia and beyond. The Phoebe Family Medicine Residency Program was the first physician residency program in our region and has graduated nearly 150 physicians, the vast majority of whom have started their careers as practicing physicians in Georgia.

The Phoebe Health Science Pathway is an innovative program that is now being replicated throughout Georgia and has gotten national attention. It built on existing partnerships by creating a specialized curriculum that allows students at the Commodore Conyers College & Career (4C) Academy to begin working as certified nursing assistants at Phoebe while still in high school. They have the chance to complete their core college courses through dual enrollment as high school students at no charge so, upon graduation, they can go straight into the nursing program at either Albany State University (ASU) or Albany Technical College.

Phoebe also invested more than $5 million to create the Phoebe Simulation and Innovation Center. It is perhaps the finest and most advanced healthcare simulation and training center located on a hospital campus in the entire country.

Simulation & Innovation Center

This incredible education center not only provides training opportunities for Phoebe employees to ensure they provide safe, quality care to our patients, it is also utilized by high school and college students throughout southwest Georgia.

NSTEP Testimonial

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and nursing students were unable to complete their hands-on clinical training, Phoebe created the innovative Nurse Simulation Training and Education Program (NSTEP) to fill in the gaps for new nurse graduates hired at Phoebe. NSTEP was so successful at making sure new nurses are prepared for the rigors of inpatient care that we made it standard for all our new nurses.

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Construction Timeline

January
2023
Groundbreaking